Guber race: No regret backing my deputy – Fayose

As the crisis over who picks the governorship ticket continues to rage in the Ekiti State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Ayo Fayose has insisted that he has no regret backing his deputy, Kolapo Olusola, to succeed him as the next governor of the state. He, however, added that in spite of his endorsement of his deputy, a primary election would still be conducted by the party’s national leadership to determine the PDP governorship candidate.

The governor spoke during an interactive session with teachers at the Government House, Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on Friday. Fayose said other aspirants who are up in arms against him for adopting Olusola would have been singing another tune if he had extended same gesture to any of them. “I have no role to play, only the NWC will conduct the primary to elect the candidate. So I won’t interfere despite my support for Prof Kolapo Olusola.

“I have no regret supporting Olusola. If it were those people I had supported, they won’t be abusing me. But they remain our brothers and sisters and we are going to put our house in order at the right time so that we can be on the same page,” Fayose said.

This was just as a PDP chieftain and former Commissioner for Public Utilities in the state, Deji Adesua, contended that Fayose has no right to impose Olusola on the party as governorship candidate. He said the resistance of some senior party figures against Fayose’s alleged imposition bid is a legitimate one, describing the governor’s alleged dictatorial tendencies as a “tragedy that has befallen Ekiti of our generation.”

Similarly, some other PDP governorship aspirants addressed a news conference during the week where they urged the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to disqualify Fayose from playing any role in the primary expected to hold in April. The aspirants include former Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye; Senate Minority Whip, Senator Biodun Olujimi; former Ambassador to Canada, Chief Dare Bejide and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Owoseni Ajayi.